Tag: Safety and Ergonomics

North Dakota Offers Safety Grants – Could You Buy a Dumpster Mover?

Does Your Safety Grant Cover a Dumpster Caddy?
Does Your Safety Grant Cover a Dumpster Caddy?

As healthcare costs continue to spiral, companies are focusing on preventive measures to help reduce injuries and illnesses. In many cases, government agencies are offering financial incentives as encouragement for employers to implement workplace safety measures.

Promoting Ergonomic Safety in the Workplace

North Dakota administers an ergonomic initiative through the state’s Workplace and Safety (WSI) agency. The goal is to reduce the number of cumulative trauma injuries, which make up 35 percent of claims that were reported in North Dakota over the last five years.

One part of the initiative provides for a safety grant to be issued to qualified employers who participate in the program.

• The process begins when an employer submits an application.

• Once the application is approved, the employer selects a provider from the WSI network to perform an on-site assessment to identify problems, make recommendations and conduct training.

• If any equipment is recommended during the assessment, the employer completes the second part of the application requesting a safety grant.

• Upon approval of the application and completion of signed agreements between both parties, the employer purchases the equipment and submits the paid invoice for reimbursement.

Could You Use Your Safety Grant to Purchase a Dumpster Mover?

Many workplace injuries happen when moving heavy dumpsters by hand. One of our clients explains that a dumpster mover from DJ Products allows this task to be completed by a single person, so it’s like “having another employee on staff.”

Don’t let workplace injuries compromise employee productivity. Visit our website and let our friendly sales engineers help you find the right solution from our comprehensive selection of battery-powered movers and tugs.

 

Lower Your Risk of Warehouse Injuries with a Focus on Ergonomics

Prevent Warehouse Injuries and Accidents With Ergonomic Equipment
Prevent Warehouse Injuries and Accidents With Ergonomic Equipment

During the course of a typical working day, there are many modern distractions employees are faced with which can cause physical injury. Arm your employees with the knowledge they need to reduce warehouse injuries and accidents by incorporating warehouse ergonomics into their daily work routine.

Remove Warehouse Obstacles

Keeping areas clear of empty boxes and used containers is imperative to prevent injuries caused by slipping and falling.

Importance of Safety Equipment

The number one type of workplace injury is strains and sprains. A lot of these injuries can be prevented with the proper safety equipment available to the employee, such as a back brace, safety harness or equipment that helps them perform their job. Explaining to employees the reasons it is important to use aids will gain employee buy-in and increase overall morale, an important part of reducing employee turnover.

Ergonomic Education

Encourage your employees to learn about ergonomics. By definition, ergonomics is the applied science of workplace equipment design in order to reduce discomfort and fatigue. Having the right industrial equipment available that can move equipment or machinery is safer than an employee trying to manually move or push heavy equipment and risk straining muscles.

Incorporating Warehouse Ergonomics

In order to begin incorporating ergonomics, review the layout of your warehouse, the number of employees and available equipment and machinery. Specialists trained in ergonomics will be able to assist you in choosing the right equipment for your specific work layout.

DJ Products like this CartCaddy Shorty help to reduce employee injuries and workers comp claims. Check out our complete inventory of cart pullers and waste caddies today.

 

 

A Waste Container Puller Helps Workers Haul Trash

It was surprising to read that there is a city in Virginia with workers who were “dragging trash several blocks…to get to the new trash compactor.” We don’t know all the particulars so we are not passing judgment. A local news station had its employees up late at night filming this spectacle to bring attention to the issue. The city’s Solid Waste Management department is aware of the problem and is looking for ways to resolve the issue.

We wonder if a DJ Products Dumpster Mover or Waste Container Puller would be of use in a situation like this. We don’t know just how heavy the trash is or what it is being dragged in…but if it is being dragged in bags there is the possibility of breakage. And if this trash is being hauled in dumpsters then this likely requires more than one employee and takes up valuable time and energy. A DJ Products Dumpster Move makes what was a job for a few employees into a job for one. The WasteCaddyLite waste puller has a compact, ergonomic design that makes it perfect for maneuvering heavy waste containers in tight areas. Find this hard to believe? Check out this video of our Waste Container Puller in action.

Our waste container pullers can be used to move dumpsters and waste containers at apartments or condominiums, municipal buildings, hospitals, and businesses. And they are not solely for hauling trash–they can also be used to transport recycled materials.

If you are interested and would like to discuss our FREE DEMO TRIAL PROGRAM, please contact one of our Sales Engineers at 1-800-686-2651.

Transport Waste and Recycling Safely with Waste Container Movers

According to the Clean Air Council, “In 1960, each person in the US only generated 2.68 pounds of waste. In 1970, the figure was 3.25. However, Americans’ recycling has improved since 2000, when the average American generated 4.65 lbs of waste per day, and only 29% was recycled.” Whether the objects we’ve used are being thrown away or being recycled, they need to be safely transported from where we live to other facilities.

DJ Products is the world leader in providing battery-powered cart pusher and assist tug puller solutions to the manufacturing, hospital, distribution, and retail industries.
Many of our motorized carts are used in flat surfaces, but workers using our dumpster mover may need to move a dumpster or other large container on an incline. Safety is paramount in all situations where workers need to transport heavy objects but even more so if there is an incline involved. Employees that have to manually push a heavy trash or recycling container up large inclines to the street may become injured due to overexertion. You can prevent this when you invest in a DJ Products battery powered waste mover. In fact, our dumpster movers could make a task that might have once required three or four employees into something that one employee can do on his or her own.

A DJ Products WasteCaddy waste container mover has a powerful 36-volt motor can maneuver dumpster from 500 lbs. to 10,000 lbs. Our dumpster mover can help prevent employee injury throughout the year as employees move heavy containers on flat surfaces or inclines and if there is a need to push or pull a dumpster over asphalt and throughout snow and ice.

A Dumpster Mover Can Be a Lifesaver in the Summer Heat

DJ Products makes material handling solutions to eliminate strains and pains that can come as a result of pushing heavy loads using carts and other wheeled equipment that was not designed to work in concert with the human body. Many of our applications are used inside of warehouses, hospitals, hotels and other facilities that may offer air conditioning to counteract summer heat.

However, if your employees need to move waste containers, compactors and dumpsters, there is a good chance they will be doing this work outside, under the hot sun. So, in addition to helping protecting an employee from musculoskeletal strain, a DJ Products Dumpster Mover or Waste Container Puller will help them to not overexert themselves when the temperatures rise. Our powered movers are designed to aid in making work efficient so your employees will have a reduced risk of heat stroke and exhaustion since they will not be pulling and pushing heavy dumpsters or other waste containers using their own strength or poorly designed carts.

One of our dumpster movers or waster container pullers can turn a three or four person job into a one person job, whether the application is needed in an apartment building, a condominium complex, a shopping mall, hotel, or an office or manufacturing complex. And having a material handling solution such as this will also be of great benefit if it is necessary to push a trash container up an incline, be it a sidewalk or a ramp to get into a building.

To learn more about material handling solutions and to hear about how we can customize them for your specific needs, contact one of our Sales Engineers at 800-686-2651.

Ergonomic Solutions for Warehouse Order Fulfillment

If your business relies on a warehouse to ship goods to your customers then you know that getting orders is only half of the battle. Once you have secured a customer’s order, it is then up to you and your team to see to it that the order reaches that customer in good condition as quickly as possible. We have no doubt that you have stressed the importance of filling orders quickly to your employees…but have you given them the right equipment to make this happen? It is important to give your employees the supplies so they can carry out your vision.

When employees are working as quickly as possible but using outdated or inadequate machinery, they are more prone to injury. In addition to this, rickety carts, unstable dollies, and overused scissor lifts can result in spilled or damaged merchandise. Having employees out on leave because of injury and losing merchandise to accidents can eat away at your profits and you do not want that.

DJ Products offers and entire lineup for industrial ergonomic material handling solutions including:

• Carts with casters
• Carts with 4-swivel casters or wagon-wheel style of turning
• Carts in a straight line
• Platform Trucks & Scissor Lifts

Our ergonomic cart pushers, electric cart pullers and other solutions eliminate the strain of manually pulling heavy product, parts carts, or wheeled equipment. Your employees can continue to work efficiently with a reduced chance of injury or product damage.

Our products are not one-size-fits-all. Contact us at 800-686-2651 to discuss exactly what you need and the customization options that will work for your industry.

Preventing Ergonomic Injuries in the Workplace

DJ Products makes industrial tuggers and powered movers that are designed not only to assist workers who need to transport heavy items and large loads but to also help those workers avoid injury. It takes research and thought to make equipment that can move loads in a way that does not cause the operators to experience muscle strain and injury.

The National Safety Council has a publication called “Injury Facts” and in this year’s edition it noted, “overexertion is the third leading cause of unintentional injuries in the United States, accounting for about 3.2 million emergency department visits. Ergonomic conditions are disorders of the soft tissues often caused by factors such as overexertion while lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling or reaching…”

The council also listed some indicators that someone is in need of an ergonomic intervention. These include: pain, swelling, numbness, tingling, tenderness, clicking and loss of grip strength.

Ergonomic injuries can affect workers on the job and at home and are often preventable. Using equipment that is designed to help the body move without unnecessary strain can help workers avoid injuries that can lead to missed work time and a loss of productivity and decreased morale.

In addition to providing ergonomically designed equipment, DJ Products also offers access to an Ergonomic Load Calculator. Our Ergonomic Load Calculator is designed to assist the Ergonomist, Safety and Health Specialist, and other professionals interested in improving health and safety practices in their workplace. The calculator is designed to estimate the amount of horizontal force necessary to move loads (on wheels) using inputs from particular workplace environments.

A Powered Carpet Dolly Helps Get the Job Done

If your business involves moving large carpets or similar objects that are heavy and cylindrical, you could probably use some help if your employees have been shouldering the burden of moving these things on their own. A power carpet dolly from DJ Products can load and move an object that is up to 1000 pounds. How is this possible? Its unique tilt and power forward action allows this to happen.

The CarpetCaddy powered carpet dolly has a conveyor lip that you can tilt forward to meet the carpet’s edge. The operator can then slowly move the CarpetCaddy forward while at the same time operating the conveyor backwards. The carpet’s weight will level out so that it rests on the CarpetCaddy and is ready to be moved. A similar set of actions in which the operator almost reverses the previous steps will unload the carpet at its desired location.

Notice we mentioned a single “operator” in the previous steps. This powered carpet dolly makes the loading of a carpet roll, a mat, or a rug from a warehouse to the jobsite an effortless job for one person. Traditionally 2 or 3 individuals would be needed to load a heavy carpet roll on their back or on a cart or dolly. This will not only allow installations and other work that involves moving carpet to process faster, it will also reduce the chances that one or more of your employees will get injured transporting carpet. During a typical carpet removal or installation, there are ample instances where someone might twist the wrong muscle, hurt their back or do some other physical damage that would require time to heal.

Use a Trailer Mover to Transport Heavy Items at Trade Shows and Expos

If your company manufactures items like boats or RVs, you probably see a great benefit to participating in trade shows and expos that give interested parties a chance to see your products. Yet, before your salespeople can show off all of the impressive features of a boat or RV that you manufacture, you have to get your products into a convention center or other exhibition hall. And this is where a DJ Products trailer mover can make a difference.

Overextending the body when manually lifting and moving items like trailers from one location to another can cause significant strain. You not only want your merchandise to arrive in good condition; you want your workers to be safe as well. Although a boat, camper or RV travels a short distance to and from your exhibit space, transporting these items even briefly can cause strain. The electric TrailerCaddy trailer mover is a perfect solution.

Our powered trailer movers have lower maintenance costs than typical trailer movers. They are also less bulky than traditional electric trailer pullers, so strain is minimized. However, being less bulky does not mean that our trailer movers are less powerful. Trailer movers like our TrailerCaddy are designed for increased control in tightly confined areas. This is especially useful for maneuvering through busy trade shows and convention centers where workers from other companies are also transporting goods.

If you are interested in seeing just how versatile our trailer movers are, you can inquire about our free demo trial trailer program. Our program allows you to use a trailer mover at your facility on a trial basis before you make a decision about purchasing one. After you fill out the Demo Program Inquiry, a Sales Engineer will get in touch with you to discuss the proper trailer mover solution.

Increase Productivity with Ergonomically-Designed Power Movers

According to the OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) website, “Ergonomics includes restructuring or changing workplace conditions to make the job easier and reducing/stressors that cause cumulative trauma disorders and repetitive motion injuries.”

While some employers may expect employees to find ways to avoid injury on their own (while keeping up with quotas and deadlines), a savvy employer will give employees the necessary equipment to prevent injury. Preventing injury can also prevent the overuse of sick leave for injury-related strain and the dips in morale that can occur when a number of employees are injured.

At DJ Products, we manufacture power movers and motorized cart movers that have been designed to help the human body complete work tasks without undue stress and strain.

Your employees can use our products to:
Maneuver heavy linen carts in hospitals and hotels
Push heavy rolls of paper or fabric
Pull heavy window, glass ,and door carts
Push buses, trailers or cars through trade shows or on assembly lines
Transport dumpsters across parking lots

These are just a few of the ways our products can help your employees transport heavy loads and avoid injury. All of our products are designed with maneuverability, ergonomics, affordability, and productivity in mind. And, with some minor configurations, our products can be adapted for almost every heavy cart pushing or pulling application.

You can call us at 800-686-2651 and one of our Sales Engineers would be happy to help you select the material handling solution that will fit you needs and explore custom applications where our base products match primary criteria.